The Winnovation by Jolito Ortizo Padilla

Every company should organize a serious , high level strategy forum (call it the "Innovation war room") to start rethinking their business from the customer backward.

In a world where the pace of change has gone hypercritical , today's most important race is for strategic renewal: to change as fast as the environment is changing around you; to invent new sources of profit before the old ones disappear; and reinvent your strategy and your business model before they become obsolete.

Strategic renewal is dynamically adjusting business models and strategies to the changes in the external environment. This requires innovation. Strategic renewal is creative reconstruction;taking your traditional business model apart, looking for imaginative ways to reconstruct it and create significant new value for your customers and your company.To go about the task of strategic renewal set up an "innovation war room". This is simple, effective device that forces all your people to focus on reinventing the business model and find bold , new growth opportunities.

Few companies have a specific innovation war room. But every company should organize a serious, high level strategy forum (call it the "innovation war room") to start rethinking their business from customer backward. Think about a slogan IBM now using: Stop selling what you have. Start selling what they need!" Never assume you can just continue to sell the same old product or service to the same old customers in the same old way-and the same old price.

Instead, business needs to get busy  working out how customers' priorities may have changed, and realign the business model to address these new needs. The winners will be those who recognize that all the game has changed, and that " same old, same old" will no longer work.

The business model can be split into five components: who they serve, what they provide, how they provide it, how they make money, and how they differentiate and sustain an advantage. Then companies need to radically rethink each component using the "four lenses of innovation". Strategy teams should:
- Challenge orthodoxies, about who their customers are, how they interact with them, how they define their products or services, and so on;
- Harness new trends to substantially change the way things are done in their industry.
- Use core competencies and strategic  assets in novel ways to generate new growth; and
- Understand and deal with customer needs that are currently going unmet.

Perhaps it is time to look  at your own business model and some " creative reconstruction", aimed at making it better to today's shifting customer needs and new economic realities.

Belated Happy New Year to all my friends all over the world.